Not only in Texas

Try searching "Texas school textbooks" on the Internet...    This is really hard to believe. 

The Texas school board, for the entire state, has just made something like 100 amendments to the school curriculum, mostly to history and biology.  They have, for example, removed the word "democrat" entirely from the curriculum (most of the board are republicans), they make sure that  people such as Newt Gingrich (Spelling?) are seen a heroes and anyone with book learnin' are vilified. It goes on and on like that.  They got in "experts" to help them make decisions on the history curriculum, experts such as a minister who's hobby is Texas history. One of the key people that I heard discussing it was a republican who believes in "intelligent design".

The thing is that Texas is one of the biggest textbook users in the US (California uses more but can't afford to buy any for  the next few years), and they actually sit down with the publishers to lay out what they want.... so you can imagine that negotiations go even beyond what the new curriculum will lay out.

Now, this shouldn't affect us, much.  But, we have Harper.  On CBC radio today they interviewed a woman who was born in the US, went to a lot of schools there, and is now a Canadian and somehow involved with education in Ontario.  She pointed out that (as others have) that since Texas uses so many books, the publishers tend to produce for them and use the same books for all of the US (this apparently isn't quite so much of an issue these days with digital publishing techniques).  As she pointed out, the christian right is moving more and more to the right in the US and getting bigger. The effect this has on us is that people who claim to be moderate conservatives (like Harper) can easily move more to the right and still claim to be moderate because they are not like "those crazies down south".  One other thing she pointed out is that school may not be the only, or even the major, influence influence on the youth. The media is also a big influence.... but, as she said, it is just as bad, or worse. But, she said that even as a 10 year old in school in the US, she remembers wondering where they got all the crazy ideas she found in the school textbooks.

Anyway, if you'd like to know more check out these sites, or just do a search..... scary stuff really.

Looks like we're in for it.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A prominent hard-line Iranian cleric who said promiscuity and immodest dress cause earthquakes says God may be holding off on natural disasters in the West in order to let people sin more and consign themselves to hell. Kazem Sedighi sparked widespread derision with his pronouncements in a prayer sermon last month linking earthquakes with women's dress. In a new sermon Friday, he has defended and elaborated on his claim.
Sedighi notes that some might ask why there aren't more earthquakes and storms striking Western nations that are "up to their necks" in immorality.
He says the answer is that God allows some of those who "provoke His wrath" to continue sinning "so that they (eventually) go to the bottom of Hell."

Its a mystery to me

Now this one has got to make you wonder.

"FORT WORTH — A North Texas family is racing to stop a hospital from amputating a patient's foot, saying the procedure violates their religious rights.

The situation is now so tense that Angela Wright's husband has been barred from the hospital where she is being treated.

Wright had her first heart attack two months ago. Her family immediately began calling prayer groups, asking fellow Christians to appeal to God.

They kept praying through five more heart attacks.

"It's everything," said Dwight Wright. "It's the reason my wife's still here, I believe."

Angela Wright remained at Baylor All Saints Medical Center Fort Worth Friday as the toes on her left foot blackened. Family members say doctors want to amputate, possibly going as far up as her knee.

That evaluation has led to a showdown. Family members say prayer needs more time to work, and an amputation would violate their religious rights; doctors say the amputation is medically necessary."

Now, let me get this straight.
She had a heart attack. 
They delayed treatment to give prayer time to work.
She's had 5 more heart attacks in the interval
Now her toes have blackened, presumably due to lack of circulation.
And the prayer is keeping her alive???????

Now, you might justifyably ask yourself why, if God gave her the heart attacks in the first place, they think that they can change his mind???

You might also ask if they really think that prayer is having any effect at all considering the 5 additional heart attacks.

You might also wonder a bit about the kind of sense of humour this God fellow has.

Neanderthals

What do Christians think of Neanderthals? Do they not consider them human? 
I wonder if the religious contradictions explain why many anthropologists are so adamant that Neanderthals were not capable of symbolic thought, and therefore not human. Whatever the reason, some anthropologists have vigorously opposed any suggestion that Neanderthals wore any kind of jewelry or created any kind of decoration or images, and thus were not human.

Up until now they have been able to cast doubt on any finds that link Neanderthals with such artifacts.... up until now. Just recently a chap named Joao Zilhao (try saying that quickly 10 times) dug up unequivocal evidence, in a site in Spain, of Neanderthal symbolism (ie body paint and jewelry), 50,000 years ago.

The conclusions resulting from this are of the "career-altering" kind for anthropologists.

For example.

• If Neanderthals could think symbolically, then they were mentally on par with "behaviorally-modern humans".

• Given that fact, you have to ask how and when did they acquire that level of mental ability.

• They either developed it independently 50,000 ya, or it was present in the common ancestor of both humans and Neanderthals many years before that.

Both possibilities have significant consequences.

• The independent scenario would mean that humans probably acquired the use of jewelry etc., by imitating the Neanderthals since humans did not exhibit these characteristics 50,000 ya, before leaving Africa, but the Neanderthals did.

• The common ancestor theory, is equally troubling because it pushes back the emergence of "behaviorally-modern" humans to earlier than 200,000 ya... (many careers have been built upon that occurrence being only 50,000 ya)

 It is amazing what two little holes in a sea shell and a bit of pigment can do to bring down years of well fortified theory.